1A Boys-
It was a thrill covering the boys meet in addition to the girls. The boys A meet had a few noteworthy performances that I paid keenly attention to. The field events got things started and I was able to rotate between all of the different events. I saw football star/jumper Jaylon Bester of Belleville Althoff warming up for the long jump. He appeared pretty loose in his warm ups laughing with a teammate and several competitors. He finally got down to business and put a hurting on the field, ultimately winning with a 22-1.5 winner. I saw him take one attempt later in the triple jump but he finished second in that event. Later I watched a bit of the high jump with Jace Norman (Illini West) going for the gold. He happens to be on the #1 team in our recent week 6 Class A power rankings. He showed true grit in battling Adam Miller (Pana) and Nick Schultz (Gibson City) for the crown. All three were tied at 6-6 late in the match and I overheard the head official say the bar will be moved up to 6-8. Norman broke the tie and brought home the gold medal.
After a steady diet of field events I was ready for the 3200. I had hyped Logan Hall (Arthur) and Wyatt McIntyre (Athens) as the two runners to do something big. As it turned out Hall won the race with ease over McIntyre with a solid 9:24.13. Hall and McIntyre was supposed to work together and exchange pace setting chores. But instead it was Hall using surge points and eventually pulling away.
The 60 dash was a surprise in my eye. A kid I barely knew in Easton Bianchi (Newman Catholic) led the prelims with a time of 7.11. Regardless, I expected Jordan Rowell (IC Catholic) to storm away with the win. Nope. Bianchi beat Rowell in the final 7.04-7.07 and walked away with the sprint crown. As it turned out the supposed heir to the sprint titles Rowell did not win a single event on the day. I'm sure he will go back and re-evaluate things for the outdoor season.
As the meet concluded, I was amazed by all of the surprises from this section. Some of the pre-season predictions that Ray Lewis and I had were not met (at least indoors). Track and field is a tricky sport sometimes. I will do better outside because the predictions were meant for the end of the season :)!